PGA West Stadium Course; La Quinta, CA

Pete Dye's infamous masterpiece is a hallucinagenic, voodoo torture chamber. A pioneering product of the 80's that introduced the world to "stadium" golf (perimeter mounding that gives spectators prime elevated viewing) and pushed the outer limits of the concept of "modern" design.

Dye's style might be more accurately labeled post-modern because it is so bold, linear and chaotic that he's almost returned full circle to the origins of the game. One need look no further than the Old Course at St. Andrew's Scotland to find bunkers with walls as massive, linear and sheer as these...just think "Hell" and "Cockle." And Dye comes closer to the bold designs of Charles Blair MacDonald than any other American architect...not surprising considering MacDonald, a Scot, took his inspiration directly from his homeland.

The most amazing and controversial thing about Dye is that he's like the Cat in the Hat. He shows up at these perfectly benign sites and "blam!" - all hell breaks loose. He's Picasso in a sandbox. He digs and stacks and piles and shapes the sand and soil into cubist drip castles and covers them all in caterpillar grass. Look at the picture above and tell me it isn't beyond belief that this property was flat as pancake before he started. Teeing off at the Stadium is like hitting into a roomful of mirrors at a funhouse and I enjoy it every time with the same masochistic glee.